Day 28 - Hoi An, Vietnam

Day 28 – His.

Breakfast was early this morning. Mostly because we had a 4 hour journey by bus to Hoi An. Hoi An is THE Vietnamese seaside town and every bit as recognisable as a holiday seaside town as Blackpool. The main difference being the 40 degree heat, 80% humidity and preponderance of Aussies as opposed to Brits.

The Bus route took us through some absolutely stunning countryside past mountains, forests and coastlines. The beaches were glorious stretches of unbroken sand that the South China Sea could play with endlessly. We stopped off at one beach for a while so we could walk the sands and paddle in the ocean for a while before we continued onto Da Nang.

During the Vietnam War, the city was home to a major air base that was used by both the South Vietnamese and United States air forces. The base was considered one of the world's busiest airports during the war, reaching an average of 2,595 air traffic operations daily, more than any airport in the world at that time. The final U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam ceased on 13 August 1972, when they stood down in Da Nang.

In order to get there, we had to pass through the Hai Van Pass. The Hải Vân Pass ( it means "ocean cloud pass" and is supposed to be misty most of the time), is an approximately 21 km long mountain pass on National Road 1A in Vietnam. It goes across a spur of the larger Annamite Range that juts into the South China Sea, on the border of two Provinces, near Bach Ma National Park. Historically, the pass was a physical division between the kingdoms of Champa and Dai Viet. Long used as a lookout for enemy troops it is littered with pillboxes and installations used to protect this vital link between north and south. It’s about 350 meters high, and often is shrouded in mist. On a clear day, however, you can see northwards, to the Lang Co peninsula; and south, to the city of Da Nang. We were lucky and had a clear day. The view was spectacular and we walked up to the watch towers and pill boxes to see what the soldiers had seen and it was commanding.

From there we bypassed Da Nang itself and drove onto Hoi An. Hoi An is a town of around 120,000 inhabitants and is recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Old Quarter is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century. Its buildings and street plan reflect the influences, both indigenous and foreign, of its heritage.

 The city possessed the largest harbour in Southeast Asia in the 1st century and was known as Lâm Ấp Phố (Champa City). Between the seventh and 10th centuries, the Cham (people of Champa) controlled the strategic spice trade and with this came tremendous wealth. The former harbour town of the Cham at the estuary of the Thu Bon River was an important Vietnamese trading centre in the 16th and 17th centuries, where Chinese from various provinces as well as Japanese, Dutch and Indians settled. During this period of the China trade, the town was called Hai Pho (Seaside Town) in Vietnamese.  Originally, Hai Pho was a divided town with the Japanese settlement across the "Japanese Bridge" (16th-17th century). The bridge is a unique covered structure built by the Japanese, the only known covered bridge with a Buddhist pagoda attached to one side – and quite beautiful.  On arrival in Hoi an, we decamped to our hotel and spent two hours walking around seeing the sights.

The weather was stupidly hot and following the previous day’s 6 hour forced march through Hue, Peter collapsed for a day of rest in his room and Heidi and Kendal (who I found out is called Candle or Can Do by the locals – i Like Can do and i resolve to call her this from now on – she is a very can do type of person!) decided to extend their lunch for more than the half hour they were allotted. So it was only Patti and I who set off with Vinh to explore the town.

Two hours of temples, medieval merchants’ houses and custom tailor shops later, we returned to the hotel and fell into the pool for a swim to wash the sweat and grime away. It was glorious.

 

Day 28 – Hers

Hoi An is a pretty town, in a preserved, touristy kind of way.  It is similar to ZhouZhuang in China in that it comprises medieval-aged buildings lining a river, lit by lanterns at night – and that its raison d’etre is a tourist resort.  It has the advantage, though, of reportedly spectacular beaches nearby that we’ll explore tomorrow.  The main attractions for tourists (other than the beaches) are custom tailoring in a day, massages, cooking lessons, boat rides, cycle hire, the evening lantern-lit market and hundreds of bars and restaurants.  It has far fewer motorbikes than the other towns and cities we have visited – and we are less of a mark as there are far more (mainly Australian) Western tourists – making it far more pleasant to stroll through the streets.

After a wonderfully refreshing swim, we went to the hotel bar for our ‘welcome’ drink – a fruit juice and rum concoction that made us quite giggly and then out to dinner at a restaurant near our hotel.  It was Indian food – deliciously spicy – served by a young woman with amazingly good English.  She said that she had learned at school but has practised with the tourists for 10 years – She told us about Vietnamese weddings – only money is given to the couple; she thought the idea of gifts was silly because the couple might want to set up a business and can’t do that with gifts – and that many Vietnamese people are afraid of the alleged end of the world forecast for 21^st December but that she doesn’t believe it will happen.

We walked to the night market and watched tourists launch floating candles into the river and vendors demonstrate colourful glow-in-the-dark toys under the gentle red and yellow of the hundreds of lanterns.  We politely refused massages and tailoring and ‘happy hour’ at the various market stalls and camera shops – it seems they have the idea here that ‘happy hour’ means ‘bargain’ – many of the shops advertise ‘happy hour’ all day – and strolled back to the hotel, contemplating a late night swim, but deciding instead to have coffee in the garden and head off to bed.